Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	law_n	parliament_n	2,185	5	6.6353	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38604	The civil right of tythes wherein, setting aside the higher plea of jus divinum from the equity of the Leviticall law, or that of nature for sacred services, and the certain apportioning of enough by the undoubted canon of the New Testament, the labourers of the Lords vineyard of the Church of England are estated in their quota pars of the tenth or tythe per legem terræ, by civil sanction or the law of the land ... / by C.E. ...	Elderfield, Christopher, 1607-1652.	1650 (1650)	Wing E326; ESTC R18717	336,364	362

that waited on the Altar heretofore did partake of the Altar there So he that ministreth the Gospel now should live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of the Gospel but of the Reward of his good message or Glad tidings as 4 By M. Mede in Diatrib on the place pa. 329. hath been somewhat Critically but very Judiciously and Soundly observed on that Text. Thus then this Politick and herein wise and just Prince resolved and accordingly gave his minde in sundry Acts passing his seal The first whereof clear enough in it self and consequentially much to our purpose was in cutting off Appeals from hence to Rome and so making this Island-Church as having no dependance of abroad a perfect Independent Congregation For so it was then judged most expedient that the affairs of Judea should not be sent necessarily to Egypt or Babylon Jerusalem might conclude all controversies that arose in the Land where Jerusalem was and our Kings Crown being of Circular and thereby most capacious form was large enough to involve and comprehend under it a resolution of all those difficulties might arise under it And that Therefore all doubts should be referred to him Therefore all forain Appeals should cease Whereupon ordered and set forth as followeth 24 Hen. 8. cha 12 1. That this of England was an intire Monarchy 2. Had suffered prejudice by appeals to abroad so long as in Causes Testamentary of Tythes Oblations c. 3. It should be so no more but even those causes of Tythes again expressed be here put to a period And therefore 4. Enacted That All causes testamentary causes of matrimony and divorce Rights of Tythes Oblations and Obventions the knowledge whereof by the goodnesse of Princes of this Realm and by the Laws and Customes of the same appertaineth to the Spiritual Iurisdiction of this Realm mark that Parenthesis and the weight thereof and this engraven in the inside of a Law inferted into the heart of an Act of Parliament to give the testimony certainty of credit and the thing as much assurance to us as any thing we have without the Bible that all such causes I say already commenced or happening hereafter c. shall be examined discussed and definitively determined as the nature of any of the things aforesaid shall require here at home With power command and threat to all to do their duty Appeals to whom they shall be made and from whom and where the finall decision shall rest and All in All the Branches before specified Which does as much as any one Parliament Law can establish and assure the then power of the Church and thereby her following Acts even about Tythes expressed and by name and by consequent the Right and Property that should be at any time the result and fruit of all Which must amount to we know what In the next year we have more of the same nature in that concluding Proviso of 25 Hen. 8. 19. before mentioned about keeping life in the body of the Provincials for a while and till the new could be made when the Pope the seeming Head of them was taken off All know what dependance had been and both to composition and execution what influences were formerly derived from that forain power upon those Laws When the Head is cut off the lower Nerves use and by consequent limbs to lose all power and motion for want of intercourfe with the brain wherein they were rooted which might be feared or doubted here reasonably and this made it necessary to infuse a new life of power that should serve as then intended for a while to quicken the old body till a new should be framed by chosen workmen to fit the King better as to making and execution depending solely on his authority Accordingly done The mentioned Proviso ratifies all Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals till the thirty two should have proceeded effectually If they have so done we have gained enough even to this particular and 1 Pag. 145. shewed how before If not this Howsoever we have gotten that the strength that is in the Provincials all of them Those for Tythes before and all other save what since revoked as about Tythes nothing has stands firm and fast by Parliament Constitution and the evident sense of the words is to the purpose of these things unavoidable But if both these be yet remote or not so fully home wrapping things onely in implying generals or consequences that take in Tythes but implicitly wherein by derivation which is always to us fallible may be mistake Come we next to that which principally and fully and in its finall and clear utmost scope intends and expresses Dueness yea Makes it and where the words of the Law give the utmost any order can a purposed Right and way for Recovery Where is that When the Cloisters went down and the whole Ecclesiastical state was thereby troubled not a little in 27 Hen. 8. Then was it needful and Then was it done and Then the right of these dues established intended to be perpetuall How appears this By the Statute made the same year in chap. 20. which thereon to make some judgement by the way as it is among the next that are nearest on this side toward us So is it the utmost and farthest on the other most mens weakness of sight is able to discern or reach to the apprehension of and yet they think they ken all and reach as they do as far as they can the bottome whereon all is settled But blame them not their sight is dim and being hindred by business idleness averseness to the thing or manifold other sorts of incumbrances or distractions that they cannot or do not purifie or strengthen it by art study industry and other painfull and laboursome means usual of searching and gaining the truth they work not beyond the sphere of their power and ability making able and fitting judgement of those things they have not the plain and simple knowledge or apprehension of that thereby they may be so able and prepared to judge They are reputed Learned if they can little more then turn an Almanack understand some plain English Authour or but have seen a Statute and then as the Aborigines of Italy which born and bred there travailed never far from their simple homes but wonder at all abroad which strangers tell them Or as some simple Rusticks who used to behold only the hils that incompass the valleys where they live think them to be near the end of the world if any thing be shewed them done beyond the mountains they dare scarce believe a part and will rest much perswaded that whatever travellers tell them is though they say what we have heard and seen declare we unto you little better then well-composed fables For they walk by sense and not by faith or that little faith they have is confined to the things of their own narrow hemispheres Even so These the utmost of whose knowledge or highest of whose

nor were Tythes but brought into the Store-house All in the Prophets phrase to have better use made of them than I doubt commonly was For 't is the charitable intention of man the wise provision of the Law by the blessed providence of God that sets things often in a good way to honest or holy ends but the corruption of man hinders seldom does one half come to good or are the things not to abuse enough perverted how well or piously soever levelled and intended CHAP. XXIII THus for sixe successive Princes Raigns Under Hen. 5. Hen. 6. Edw. 4. Edw. 5. Rich. 3. and the wise puissant Hen. 7. nothing being heard of murmure and discontent but all in peace and silence The Canons as in Lindewood c. governed the Consistory Westminster sent to controul as often as any noise was made of extravagancy by Prohibition Some prudent Statutes as Circumspectè Agatis Articuli Cleri c. had bound their hands too that they might not send as oft as they would but when abuse called for remedy And so things went on in Harmony for justice peace and order through this intervall Laws already made were obeyed and more were not made because those that were were both for their end sufficient and set in a way to have sure execution But now in that general Earthquake when this Earth was moved and all the Inhabitants thereof though some Men stood and some Parts were not overthrown When the turbulent passions of that mighty and boisterous Prince left nothing untouched or unshaken and that some might seem at least to stand the faster other parts were thought fit to be quite pulled down yea buried and intombed under the ruines of their own glory as 't were by the fatality of Jerichoes curse Iosh 6 26. Never more to be reedified Maledictus vir ille coram Jehova qui surget ut aedificet c. yet even Then was no prejudice offered nor diminution made of this part of Ecclesiastical Revenue or Jurisdiction to bring it in a great argument of its strength that had over-lived a storm and some necessity that it was preserved when that next was chosen to be cast away But before this great work was done by himself and his son divers new sinews of strength added to confirm all that had passed before as well by clearing the right had been by 1 27 Hen. 8. 20 32 Hen. 12. 2 Edw 6. 13. some new Statutes to evidence the justice of the claim as by creating a new power to fetch them in and inabling secular persons at least to sue for them in their own Court the new Statute way Not abrogating the Ecclesiastical but giving choice of this Pointing to a new remedy besides the old as 2 So is interpreted and used and of force that of 2 Edw 6. 13. commonly understood though some doubt 3 That the cla●se of treble damages in 2 Edw. 6 13. is to be s●ed in the Ecclesiasticall Court onely See Dr. Ridleys view of the Laws par 3. chap. 2. sect 5. That Customes in payment of tythes are t●●able onely in the Ecclesiastical Courts was averred to be proved before by him Sect. 3 and see hereof the Proviso transcribed below rationally But for certain not destroying That utterly For the 4 And that for subtraction of any of the said tythes offerings or other duties the Parson Vicar Curate or other party in that behalf grieved may by due processe of the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of England convent the person or persons so offending before his Ordinary or other competent Iudge of this Realm having authority to hear and determine the right of Tythes and also to compel the same person or persons offending to doe and yeeld their said duties in this behalf 27 Hen 8 12. And in case any person or persons of his or their ungodly perverse will and mind shall detain or with old any of the said tythes or offerings or part or par●el thereof then the person or party bring Ecclesiastical or Lay person having cause to demand or have the said tythes or offerings being thereby wronged or gri●ved shall and may convent the person or persons so offending before the Ordinary his Commissary or other competent Minister or lawfull Iudge of the place where such wrong shall be done according to the Ecclesiastical Laws And in every such case of matter or suit the same Ordinary Commissary or other competent Minister or lawfull Iudge shall and may by vertue of this Act proceed to the examination bearing and determination of every such cause or matter ordinarily or summarily according to the course and processe of the said Ecclesiasticall Laws and thereupon may give sentence accordingly 32 Hen. 8. 7. often mention of it upon other occasions as well as this with a clause of Proviso 5 And be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that if any person do subtract or withdraw any manner of tythes obventions profits c. that then the party so subtracting and withdrawing the same may or shall be convented in the Kings Ecclesiasticall Court by the party from whom c. to the intent the Kings Judge Ecclesiasticall shall and may then and there bear determine the same according to the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws And that it shall not be lawfull unto the Parson Vicar c. to convent or sue such withholder of tythes obventions or other duties aforesaid before any other Iudge then Ecclesiastical 2 Edw. 123. inserted to fence all from violation shews plainly that K. Henry meant what he did and none should or could cross his purpose sc though the Pope went off to keep the Church-power up and though the Abbies went down yet Tythes for the support of Religion Must Not be medled with Such power I mean as might begin and end its motion wholly within it self like the wheels of a watch that keep themselves going by help of a Spring at home needing no power from abroad not of a clock whose moving weights are without and so liable to the inconvenience of forain disturbance or as the highest sphere of all Primus Motor that keeps it self a going by it self meerly not like the inferiour that wait on superiour influences Such power and the Jurisdiction of Tythes therewith and thereby and the right of Tythes by consequent yea in Statute words expressed not needing any derivation He kept up in vigour life strength and quickness as it was of use And as well the Records preserved as other means of information obvious enough do assure that to his time through his time in it and on this side the Law continued which settles all to settle these and leave them settled an indefeasible inheritance to us their unworthy posterity And as they were left so I hope for Gods glory and the maintenance of his service and servants the labourers that bring in His Harvest they shall not but always continue to all succeeding generations For Who hath

yet so as in All still no pretence was to impede the Jurisdiction of known due Tythes but if the Court were extravagant and would meddle with what was Lay then clog it with a prohibition that it might not exceed its bounds otherwise let it go on and proceed freely and fully without any manner of disturbance And this I say hath been the known way of proceeding view their Books ask the Lawyers themselves they will allow though they may finde some fault in my expression the reality of things and that what I aim at is right though I may faulter in the way of expression Nor is any thing more certain then the Restraint of their Restraints the Prohibiting of their Prohibitions that they should not step forth to hinder the Court Spiritual in that was such or belonged thereto the certain Consequent whereof was a known Recovery and translation of one fliece sheaf lamb or thing whatsoever of ten from one man to another This was a little extravagant but I providently forecast and conditioned not to be tyed too strictly to Rules of Method though of mine own making Too much exactness may be as incommodious as altogether loose This belongs to what I was upon the Jurisdiction of Tythes and thereby right and to the reflections of the Temporal State as it stood separate and favouring glances of which sort onely is all in this Cell we may properly look for and these though not alleadging one quarter of that is seem to make good what was undertaken abundantly CHAP. XXIX AND this of the first branch of Donation made out by many subsequent confirmations before under by and since the beginning of the Common Law as well before the Conquerour as since under these four heads of 1. The Confirmation of K. Edwards Laws wherof these were a part 2. The Church Decrees authorising the King licensing the State looking on and approving all the other power that was 3. The Acts of Parliament such as looked this way out of their direct way from the great Charter to the Petition of Right inclusivè 4. The Learned Expositors taken for Oracles of Law particular as Cook Fleta Bracton c. Adding some hint of proceedings accordingly and especially asserting throughout the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for them which will alone induce and make good all the rest All which together has been so much and the Roots of this Right so far shewed and evidenced to be spread hereby that few mens estates I beleeve can hardly shew or colour for the like and yet the men possess and enjoy what they have in peace and firm security for through all the good old Laws of the Land these roots are hereby manifest to have been dispersed and as it were through every part and member of our English State and Corporation Fees Socages and Serjeanties are but of yesterday the Children of Power rather then Right at first and take their utmost date on this side the battle of Sanguelac besides age and to us unusefulness affording other infirming considerations enough Mannours and Fee-farms of not much greater reason and equity and both Copy and Free-hold chiefly grounded on as they are come to us understood to be possessed the Word of the Law But these were voluntary Concessions of the highest powers in their solemnest meetings long since upon so reasonable consideration as to establish the doctrine of the Bible and so they yet stand to beare it up like the pillars that supported Solomons Ivory Throne Behither and beyond the Conquering day have held up strong and fast in despite of all storms that have been since our Nation believed the Bible whether to decay with it time will shew and if the reasonable and continued willing and authorising powers of the Nation all of them could by their pactions the surest ground create a Right Here it must be Sure and Firm such as the like is scarce to be found again in our Community All could not have been deceived nor force in every thing 't is very like mis-placed Laws Canons Acts Ordinances Decrees Statutes could so many effectual and in other cases sufficiently made Rules of Right be here made and yet not made and yet have born rule with obeyed power If Civill Right be stood upon could All so Many operative and continuing causes thereof have wrought from time to time kindly and vigorously without any effect or but Must contribute and do what humane Pactions and Concessions could or any thing below the footstool of Gods Throne The Divine Right I confess is of another sort more awful it separates clearly to an higher kinde and we look upon it as more venerable founded in God and partaking therewith of his constancy as well as holiness must be always without shadow of change the Same Nor can be touched upon rudely with profane hands without a Relative violation of that Majesty above from whence it proceeds And Therefore men should be very wary how they affixe this seal of Heaven to every Imagination of their Own stamping the Character of Divine Right upon disputable opinions entituling God thereby to their perswasions perhaps errours of fancies and but what they strongly conceive must be Thus of equall authority with Divine Oracles Highest presumption But speak of Humane Right what has its firmness whence all lower titles and inclosures have the agreeing Acts of Men and Mutual Humane Stipulation Of this sort I believe we shall seldome finde any thing better grounded or faster settled then This And if seconding and conspiring rules of common equity can contribute any thing to the backing and strengthening of what is so placed and settled these not wanting neither and by as good title as any men have any thing with us our tribe of Levi has here in England the same to the Inheritance of Israel Equail in this too that 't is as good as the best and if we had any better or higher this would no doubt come out with the highest But we have none Our Tribes pretend not to a partition from Heaven nor Dominion or Property Lordships Mannours or Honours to any thong to be cut out by but inferiour lower inconstant rules of arbitrary good Will and Pleasure guided by compact and Humane Wisdome And therefore Levi hath no reason to take it amiss if in this he be not preferred above his Brethren to a right of another sort if it should prove so and higher strain having a touch of sacred and extraordinary sealed from Heaven But rather bless his God if he have done full out so much for him as for others and as he did anciently heretofore among his own people giving him an Equall Highest Claim and Right with the Best and as near Divine as any of his Nation Which is both done and cleared certainly and should serve his turn sufficiently and abundantly CHAP. XXX NOW proceed next to other helping supports amongst men firm enough in other cases to create Right if these hitherto should fall short